CAPTAIN AMERICA was a phenomenon when the series debuted in the very last days of 1940. It was by far the best-selling title that publisher Martin Goodman had in his Timely line of comics, and the character would go on to headline in other books as well–ALL WINNERS COMICS, ALL SELECT COMICS, USA COMICS and others.
However, by 1949, the bloom was off the rose. World War II had been over for four years at this point, leaving the Captain with no particular foe to battle. He carried on in peacetime, contending with the usual thugs and criminals of the era, and the occasional super-villain–but his reason for being was gone. Throughout the field, super heroes were falling by the wayside, being replaced by other now-more-popular fare.
And so, in its final two issues, CAPTAIN AMERICA transitioned into being a horror comic–not much of a stretch given that that’s the way Cap’s creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby viewed their approach to creating Cap stories. Cap didn’t even appear in the final issue despite having his name (small) on the cover, and he only appeared in a single story in #74–his final Golden Age appearance. So, presented here is the last Captain America story:
Captain America apparently hangs around in his apartment in full costume.
Gotta love a demon who knocks on the door.
The Red Skull apparently wears his skull-mask even in hell. People had strange ideas about costumes in 1949. Also, a red skull with a pink shirt isn’t exactly a winning combination.
And it was all a dream–or was it?
And that’s how Captain America wrapped up his Golden Age career, never to return–until 1953, when the character was brought back for a short-lived revival, and then 1964, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby resurrected him in the Marvel Age as a member of the Avengers.
Nobody’s been able to identify the creators on this last Cap story, but the cool cover was drawn by Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
I was completely unfamiliar with this story, Tom. Thanks for sharing it!
LikeLike
First time I’ve seen any portions of this story, which comes off as rather bizarre even by standards of the early Silver Age but seems to have been more of the norm for the Golden Age. If that had been the last Captain America story ever, it would have seemed a rather sad fate for the costumed hero who burst on the scene with such fanfare, punching Hitler in the jaw on the cover of his debut, in a comic named for him, one of the very few to do in that era. But by late ’49, he just sits alone in his apartment, wearing his costume, waiting for something to do. Had his post-war life become so dreadfully dull that going to Hell itself seemed an improvement? Oh, but then, about 15 years later, his old co-creator, Kirby, and a new creative collaborator, decreed that it didn’t happen at all — Cap was all iced up and floating somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean in 1949 while his arch foe, the Red Skull, was likewise in comatose state of preservation in the ruins of an underground bunker somewhere in Germany, both awaiting revival, to re-engage in combat.
LikeLike